Poison God's Heritage

I examined the floor and walls as much as I could without touching anything. I didn't even dare use Divine Sense even though it wouldn't have penetrated anywhere far enough for me to figure out the content of this building or structure we're in.

After all, one bad fuckup and we can become squashed meat. My puppet sacrificed itself for us after all.

"I cannot keep this contact for long, I'll keep an eye out however," the Darkest Sun said and soon withdrew from controlling the Fire Lord's mouth.

"Ugh, disgusting," the Fire Lord said.

Everyone including me felt a bit weirded out that the Fire Lord said that about his master. But I wasn't one to correct other people or delve too deep into their relationships.

Regardless, I kept checking out the area close around us but failed to come up with anything worth noting besides the symbols that kept repeating all over the place. They weren't random, they were all drawn line underlined, like old Egyptian hieroglyphics from my former world.

"Heritage," I said.

"What?" Law asked.

"This, all around us, feels like the heritage of a people. Although I didn't understand it, I could tell. But something this size. This big…"

I didn't need to finish my words, because leaving a heritage this big means one thing. This was the last hope of the people.

This was getting a bit scarier by the second. For something this massive to exist, it means that it took an ungodly amount of effort and workforce to build. Not to mention, nothing was mentioned about it in the library of the Lord of Lords.

The farthest it goes in time was when the thunder domain was here. So, could it be that a race of people was here before the current race of the people in the beyond? Did they perish?

No, that doesn't make sense. The beyond is far too large and big for an entire race to perish without leaving any trace.

The questions keep bringing more questions. I decided not to think about it for now, since it'll only strain my head for no obvious outcome.

Soon though, one of the black beetles I sent came back.

It then handed me a small piece of metal that was as big as a finger. On the metal piece were hundreds and thousands of minuscule carvings.

I pulled out my holographic projector, the same one I used to create the thunderbane formation on top of my ship, and slotted in the metallic piece inside.

Light went through the piece of metal and projected a map of the area ahead of us.

The corridor was long, and extended until a three-way split. Two of the ways were locked shut from what the projection showed, and the middle one had its door opened.

The map stopped there for some reason, although the door was opened, the black beetles couldn't move past this point for some reason.

"Let's head forward," I said to my group.

With the hundred or so puppets ahead of us, moving in unison and somewhat clearing the path for us, we were able to proceed rather smoothly. As long as they didn't trigger any traps, we shouldn't either.

We kept moving at a steady pace, while I took note of every piece of this lost heritage. Memorizing it as I moved forward. After all, the moment I was able to recognize the pattern and how these things are written would be the moment I could create a cypher and start understanding the language.

It took us an hour of walking slowly until we reached the split passage. And through that long time and many words in that heritage I was able to understand one thing. If this is a language, this language has millions of words. Because it was that rare to find the same words duplicated. And it felt as if every symbol represented something.

I'll need a longer time to deduce and understand what they mean. Or if I had a book from this civilization, it would be even better.

Once we arrived at the split section, I took a glance at the three doors. Two of them were locked shut, and they seemed to have the same symbols on the door outside the structure.

The middle one however was fully opened. And it peered over another room. The room itself didn't look any different than the corridor we were in, but it was circular and had another door at the other side.

But the more interesting part was the fact that it had several rotten and decayed chairs facing the walls.

While the ground was full of dust and what seemed to be… human remains.

With the open room in front of us, I didn't bother thinking of what was inside the other. And these remains could probably tell us of what happened here. However wat surprised me was not the people, but the small black beetles stuck unable to go beyond the door.

Law was the first to proceed forward, and just as I was about to berate him for doing things without consideration, he took a step into the room.

the moment he walked in, he faced the floor as if he got a mountain slammed against him.

"Heavy!" he gasped.

I dragged him back, and said, "You should stop doing things without thinking, if the beetles couldn't get inside, then at least think why first before you take action."

"It wasn't weight," Law said as he gasped once more, "I was caught off guard. That room, completely seals off one's Qi." He said.

I frowned, why would something like that be here…

Also that explains why the beetles didn't move forward.

I ordered one of the puppets to take a step forward, and the moment it did, the puppet went out of order. It got disabled.

I dragged the puppet back, and it soon returned to function.

At least the circuits didn't get fried. So it only bans the usage of Qi. I see…

I then took a step forward.

"What are you doing?" Law said as I was inside the room. "Also, how come you're not affected?"

"Because I don't use normal Qi, this is rather… comfortable," I said. After all, the presence if heavenly Qi constantly swamps my senses. I got used to it as a side effect of my cultivation. I knew that the Heavenly Qi is there, always there, but I couldn't grasp it or use it. But here… I was like a fish in the sea. Completely unfettered and free.

I took a long gasp of air and sighed, I could use something like this. Replicating it and making it into a room where I could sleep and meditate in.

I shook my head, thinking random thoughts in such a situation will lower my alertness. People had died here.

"Give me a second, I'll need to figure out the mechanic that's incapacitating Qi and disable it."

I took several steps inside and approached the first human remains.

The bones were white but all had purple spots on them, and with a mere touch, they turned to dust.

They didn't have an ounce of Qi in them. I went to check another corpse, and then another, and they were all the same. So old that mere air would turn them to dust.

However, there was one thing in common with these corpses.

"They all died due to the same thing," I said.

"And what is that?" Dao Shen asked.

"Poison, they were all affected by a poison called the Mourning Burial Poison," I said.

"That's a weak poison, how come they all died to that?" Law asked.

"It would be weak to cultivators like you, but can you say the same if you take a step inside and consume that poison?" I asked.

"Oh, the removal of Qi… but why that poison?" Law asked.

"I think, they weren't poisoned, rather… they committed mass suicide," I said.

"How did you figure that out?" the Fire King then asked.

Zhang Tian, for the first time spoke in reply to the Fire King, "Because they wanted to go without any pain. The Mourning Burial poison causes the body to go numb and drowsy, they wouldn't even sense death."

"They were all facing away from each other," Dao Shen added, "Perhaps they didn't want to see their brethren die?"

"We can't judge anything for now, also there is something near the wall there, I'll go check it out," I said.

On the wall where a few of the chairs were facing, there was a cube that was protruding outward.

It felt like it was something that you can press, like a button of sorts.

Although I have no idea what the repercussions of doing something like this would entail. Perhaps it is a trap or simply a random mechanism of this structure. I still pressed it.

The moment I did, the room slightly trembled and light lit up from around us.

On the opposite wall of me, the Soulsteel began changing and displayed an image at first.

A man showed up on it. And he looked terrified and fearful.

He spoke in a language I didn't understand but was pointing forward and to his ear several times.

Looking at the direction where he was pointing, I noticed that the cube I pressed had opened up revealing a pair of crystals.

Once I grabbed one of them, I felt as if my mind was shocked and suddenly I was able to understand what the man was saying.

"I hope you can use the crystal. This is the final transmission… we are all going to die. And if you were hearing this, no matter what you do… do not proceed forward."

His voice was suddenly disrupted by the most unholy, most wretched and most soul rending scream I had ever head through my life.

My entire being felt as if it was being assaulted by a myriad of terrifying thoughts and feelings. Enough that I almost fell to my knees and started sobbing.

The man's face grimaced for a second before he took another breath and said. "We're carrying the Fallen God With us. And it already destroyed our world…"